My guess is that you will play as Shepard "on the run" from a group of clandestine baddies trying to take control of the universe through the council. They think you dead, but you are not, hence the official report saying you are. Either that, or since you became a symbol to humanity in the first one, they say you are dead in this one to take the moral from humanity... or maybe you are working with the council, but they need people to think you are dead...

Well, there are a lot of possibilities why you could be "officially dead" even if you are not.

1) Shepard somehow has amnesia, and "forgot" his skills.
2) Shepard's death has been faked allowing him to go underground and strike the enemy from within.
3) Shepard is actually dead, and you play as a lowly soldier. That's a HUGE risk for BioWare to take, and is extremely unlikely.

I'd definitely go with the "faked death" idea. Now, whether his death was faked to allow deeper infiltration behind enemy lines, or was it done by the enemy to prevent him from using his authority as a Spectre remains to be seen.
I agree with leXX, the teaser trailer is very clever.

I dunno, that looked alot like his armour from the epilogue/Eden prime mission, as his Alliance navy rank at the time meant that was design type he was issued- Note how if you outfitted the Human squad mates with Sheperd's starter armour, it lost its red details?

And maybe the Geth have evolved, so they no longer make machine cultists (Big pointy spike things) but can actually make them their victims Geth? Seeing as they lost Sovereign, maybe they are making some other effort at bringing back the reapers and tactics have changed?

All hypothesis ofc, I don't believe for a second they'd kill Sheperd off for a second.

British By Birth. English By The Grace Of GodDulce et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori Let Mercy Come

I hope when Bioware is developing Mass Effect 2's subquests they would actually have more to do then just go guns blazing through a facility somewhere and either press a button or kill some NPC or talk to some NPC and choose if you want to kill him. It got VERY repetative. The only saving grace to the subquests was all the dialogue linked to them

Anyway to the whole Shepard dying bit. We don't actually see Shepard's "corpse" if any. All we see is a geth wearing Alliance military Armour. Which could just be a camera transition coming off the Normandy. It is possible the Normandy was under attack somewhere and crashed on a Geth infested world. Causing Shepard to be pronounced "dead", but may be still alive. Then the Geth try and check out the crash and the game begins. Or something of the sort

I do like how it lists off all the aliens who are on the ship. Such as Liara, Tali, Wrex and Garrus and not Ash or Kaiden (I laughed at that a little. But I won't spoil it). But a slight thing confused me since Tali was always talking about going back to her people after defeating Saren and Garrus was talking about either rejoining C-Sec or joining the Specters. So why are they still on the Normandy? Big stuff

Well, they aren't listed as "current Normandy crew", they are listed as "known associates". There's a big difference. And considering the look of the teaser official site, it seems like Cerberus is definitely involved.

I do hope they keep the same protagonist in Mass Effect 2. I think it would give the series a better sense of continuity. The original Star Wars trilogy probably wouldn't have been as popular if the A New Hope characters got killed off at the start of Empire Strikes Back and replaced by new ones, etc. (The Baldur's Gate series was great in that sense, playing the same character from a fledgling trainee up to the verge of godhood though several games, allowing you to import your character from an old save.)

Since character level really didn't matter much, as the rest of the universe leveled up along with you, it shouldn't be a major obstacle to continuing on with an imported character.

The different endings allowed in Mass Effect (1) can make it somewhat problematic to build a continuing story in the sequel without entirely marginalizing the impact of the player's choice in the first game, if there isn't a large jump in the timeline between the two. Could probably make two separate story paths, but that would likely be too much work for such a game. It will be interesting to see how they solve that.

When you look at it, the endings weren't so different. The only two choices you have to make is

spoiler:

whether to kill Ashley or Kaidan and whether the council survives or not

, the rest of the story remains the same, so I don't think it would be that much of a problem.

spoiler:

So you don't see any diffrent in that the human takes complete controll over the galaxy(Renegade ending) or just join the Council(Paragon ending) ? The diffrent in politics would be immense and that would affect the world, but if the game don't take place in the "Human/Council" part of the galaxy it could maybe work. But then i don't think the game would be so funny to play

So you don't see any diffrent in that the human takes complete controll over the galaxy(Renegade ending) or just join the Council(Paragon ending) ? The diffrent in politics would be immense and that would affect the world, but if the game don't take place in the "Human/Council" part of the galaxy it could maybe work. But then i don't think the game would be so funny to play

There is a difference, but not that big. Basically, the difference would be in the NPCs that represent the governing body (either the surviving interspecies council, or a purely human council) and, of course, their dialogues. The irony is that the human council, while possibly having some different attitudes towards alien species, would function very similarly to the original council, when it comes to indecisiveness and lack of action. The main story would thus basically remain the same.

With the ending problem it could be easily remedied. Look at TSL's approach to Kotor's ending. They could just have it mentioned but the galaxy just goes in the same direction no matter what choice the previous game held. It is just the specifics and NPCs are different

EDIT: About party members. Technically the alien party members of the Normandy aren't really apart of the crew. As emphasized by Ash about Liara. Since the Normandy is an alliance vessel only alliance members can technically be apart of the crew. So the alien party members would have to be considered as associates rather then crew members.

EDIT: About party members. Technically the alien party members of the Normandy aren't really apart of the crew. As emphasized by Ash about Liara. Since the Normandy is an alliance vessel only alliance members can technically be apart of the crew. So the alien party members would have to be considered as associates rather then crew members.

The Alliance may be disbanded and humanity might become intergrated into the Citadel military as know the his now a human Spectre and Council member.

With the ending problem it could be easily remedied. Look at TSL's approach to Kotor's ending. They could just have it mentioned but the galaxy just goes in the same direction no matter what choice the previous game held. It is just the specifics and NPCs are different

True, but then KOTOR2:The Sith Lords did go out of its way to marginalize everything that happened in the first game to the point that you might as well not have bothered at all. I'd rather they didn't do that in Mass Effect 2, since I think big decisions like that should have some noticeable effect on the game world, one way or another.

Did anyone actually choose Udina over Anderson to take over the council at the end? lol. Even with my multiple plays (around 7), I never actually once chose Udina. I think it's pretty safe to say that the vast majority of people that played the game would have chosen Anderson, so if they continue along that route, I can't see it being a big problem.

Being human totally sucks most of the time.
Videogames are the only thing that
make life bearable. - Anorak's Almanac, Chapter 91, Verses 1-2

Did anyone actually choose Udina over Anderson to take over the council at the end? lol. Even with my multiple plays (around 7), I never actually once chose Udina. I think it's pretty safe to say that the vast majority of people that played the game would have chosen Anderson, so if they continue along that route, I can't see it being a big problem.

I did. Once. Just to see what happens. Not much difference,

spoiler:

but yeah, a vast majority, including me will originally go with Anderson.

Seems like there might be a few differences whether you went paragon or renegade in first game. For one thing, there was the Rachni issue with the Rachni queen you either save or kill in Me1. And I could see her children either becoming a thorn in your side or allies in a second game depending on whether she was killed or not. But that would be more of an A.I. issue than what creatures are programmed into the game. I'd love to see that as pivotal in whether they work against or with you in a 2nd one. Also in how appreciative the aliens (as saviours of the council) are toward you in how they speak, or defenteral and envious (as rulers who crush them under their foot), but that could largely be done with changing what they say and the skins a bit. The types of mission you got sent on for the overarching plot might be the same, but I could see some very different subplots developing too.

"If force is the game, the murderer wins over the pickpocket." Ayn Rand

"Justice is the midpoint between being treated unjustly, and treating others unjustly." Aristotle

I agree, the Rachni Queen decision was what I consider to be the hardest choice in the game, and is an integral part of the plot. I had it in my mind that when they made ME2, we would get to see the consequences of wether you commited genocide or showed compassion. I really do hope it's in ME2 somewhere.

Being human totally sucks most of the time.
Videogames are the only thing that
make life bearable. - Anorak's Almanac, Chapter 91, Verses 1-2

Seems like there might be a few differences whether you went paragon or renegade in first game. For one thing, there was the Rachni issue with the Rachni queen you either save or kill in Me1. And I could see her children either becoming a thorn in your side or allies in a second game depending on whether she was killed or not. But that would be more of an A.I. issue than what creatures are programmed into the game. I'd love to see that as pivotal in whether they work against or with you in a 2nd one. Also in how appreciative the aliens (as saviours of the council) are toward you in how they speak, or defenteral and envious (as rulers who crush them under their foot), but that could largely be done with changing what they say and the skins a bit. The types of mission you got sent on for the overarching plot might be the same, but I could see some very different subplots developing too.

spoiler:

Wait. Don't you still see Rachni on that uncharted world? The one where you see some alliance marines fighting off Rachni and you have to stay with them. I remember you had to apparently connect the Mako to some generator so the turrets would be online. Then eventually go into some mine and fight them off until you slay their leaders? I can't for the life of me remember what that planet or what that quest was called. But I was sure I played it after Noveria. I think that mission was based off of StarShip Troopers

It is possible that more Rachni manage to make it off Noveria after they found the egg on that starship. The research team at Peak 15 could have sent a "clone" or something of the Queen to Cerberus. Bioware can think of anything to give an excuse to why the Rachni would be in the galaxy